Tree-Ring-Based Hydrological Records Reconstructions of the Himalayan Rivers: Challenges and Opportunities

Mayank Shekhar*, Parminder Singh Ranhotra, Amalava Bhattacharyya, Ayushi Singh, Rupesh Dhyani, Shaktiman Singh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Himalayan rivers play a significant role in the survival of the vast population of the Indian subcontinent. Information on the long-term spatio-temporal hydrological variability is required for hydropower generation, irrigation, and flood management. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the long-term perspective of the flow of these rivers (also considered as streamflow) which could only be achieved based on proxy data analysis in the absence of observed data. Tree-rings provide an excellent proxy of streamflow to understand the hydrologic variations for a long past beyond the existing instrumental records. The logic behind developing the relationship between tree growth and streamflow is the common climatic factors, mainly precipitation and evapotranspiration controlling the tree growth and streamflow. Here, this chapter presents a review of the available information of tree-ring-based streamflow records and flood events from some of the Himalayan rivers along with fundamental principles followed for the analysis of discharge reconstructions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSpringer Climate
EditorsS. Rani, R. Kumar
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media B.V.
Pages47-72
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-92782-0
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-92781-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Publication series

NameSpringer Climate
ISSN (Print)2352-0698
ISSN (Electronic)2352-0701

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors express their gratitude to Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, for encouragement and permission to publish this work (vide: BSIP/RDCC/Publication No.32/2018?19) under the in-house 5.8 project. One of the authors (MS) also acknowledges the Birbal Sahni Research Associate grant from BSIP, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, and Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India, startup grant for Young Scientist under Grant No. SR/FTP/ES?127/2014 sss for the work.

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Flood events
  • Himalayan conifers
  • Streamflow reconstruction
  • Tree-ring study

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